Tory hitman with a TV licence to kill

David Elstein was asked by the Tories to think the unthinkable about the Beebs future. He did, so why have they abandoned him, asks Jasper Gerard

David Elstein began his inquiry into the future of the BBC the morning Andrew Gilligan made his dodgy broadcast. Elstein, despairing of tatty reality TV shows dressed up as public service broadcasting, was proposing to dismantle the BBC. So his timing seemed perfect. However, his report — advocating the abolition of the licence fee, allowing us to pay only for television we watch — has been dumped upon.

Tessa Jowell, the culture secretary, huffs and puffs about the fee, but she would not dare blow Television Centre down, even if she wasn’t ideologically wedded to the Beeb as Britain’s last great nationalised industry. Lord Hutton had already given the corporation such an extreme caning over Gilligan that further punishment beatings might look vindictive.

Even the Tories, who asked the former Channel 5 and Sky boss to write his report, have gone cold on Elstein. In these curious times, Michael Howard poses as